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National Lessons from the Life and 
Death of President Lincohi. 



A SEEMOlSr I 

PREACHED IN ^ 

CANONSBURG, PA. 1^ 



FAST DAY, THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1865. 



RET. J. W. BAIN, 



GC^ 



PITTSBURGH: 

TRINTED BY W. S. HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
1865. 






'^f^l 



National Lessons from the Life and 
Death of President Lincoln. 



A SEEMO]^ 



PREACHED IN 



l|^ Uitilili ^Pi^li||lijiia.iii CIe^^I, 



CANONSBURG, PA. 



FAST DAY, THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1865. 



/ 



HEY. J. W. BAIN, 



PITTSBURGH: 

TRINTED BY W. S, HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
1865. 



E^s 
.s 






SERMON. 



"And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, &c." 

2 Chronicles 35:24, 25. 

With a very few exceptions, the Jewish nation had been afflicted 
with very corrupt rulers for many years preceding Josiah, and he 
succeeded a very had nder, but during the reign of good King 
Josiah a great reformation was effected in the nation, at least out- 
ivardly. In all these points there is an analogy between this good 
king and our lamented President. But death robs earth of the 
best it has, taking them from the wicked, unworthy present, or the 
evil to come ; and wherever or whenever death comes, he speaks 
solemn lessons to the living. Whether he enters the hovel or the 
palace, whether he take the king or the peasant, the old man or the 
infant, his visitation should teach the living wisdom. But when he 
" comes up into our windows, and enters into our palaces," and 
cuts off, by the hand of foulest bloody assassination the Ruler of a 
great and troubled nation, there is different and more important 
instruction than his common visitation teaches. The death, the 
time and manner of the death of our beloved President, has some 
peculiar lessons for us. All Judah and Jerusalem, both church and 
state, mourned for good Josiah, and it was right — they suffered a 
great loss and a sore bereavement ; so all, both in church and 
state, have good reason to mourn for Abraham Lincoln, for it was 
a great loss and a painful bereavement. But thoughtless grief is 
not sanctified, and bereavement that teaches nothing is unprofitable ; 
then let us try to get good out of this sorrow. To this end, I ask 
your attention to some lessons which I think it plainly and im- 
pressively teaches. 

First. The greatness and atrocity of the crime of treason and re- 
bellion. Before this last woeful tragedy, we had many proofs of this. 



We had seen the noblest youth of our land — that loving mothers had 
cradled, watched over and educated to manhood, the pride and 
strength of their country — given by hundreds of thousands to the 
rebel bayonet and the sword of treason ; we knew that thousands 
of them had been starved into sickness, madness and death ; we 
had seen every source of wealth and happiness troubled, the hard 
earned fruits of freemen's honest toil poured by millions daily into 
the bottomless pit of war, and bereaved weepers walking all over 
the land ; yet the moral sense of the Nation did not seem to be 
aroused and purged to see the enormity of the crime. We seemed 
to regard it as an unfortunate difference of opinion, as quite a par- 
donable offense ; inclined to take the red, treacherous hand, and 
restore to confidence the erring brother, with only a sharp rebuke. 
In our folly we were almost, if not quite ready '' to make a mock 
at this sin." But the crime, just in the hour of defeat, arouses its 
dying energies, embodied in the persons of these assassins, and 
stabs the nation in the bodies of her Chief Magistrate and Prime 
Minister. This was not the result of individual hate or personal 
vengeance. In the fall of our beloved ruler we can exclaim, with 
Antony, "Oh what a fall was there, my countrymen! then you, 
and I, and all of us, fell down, and bloody treason flourished over 
us ;" for the nation's life was supposed to be embodied there. 
Surely this should teach us that treason and rebellion is a heinous 
and a bloody crime, whether talked in the name of a once great 
political party, or acted in defense of a rebellious confederacy; 
whether uttered at the fireside or the forum, talked in the shop or 
the market, in the school or the church, it is an odious and flagrant 
crime, odious in the sight of God, and the greatest committed 
against civil government and humanity. It is this that has robed 
this nation in the habiliments of woe to-day. Oh that tears of 
grief may wash clean the moral vision of the land to see the crime 
in its magnitude. 

Second. It should teach us the guilt and corrupting power of 
human slavery. We had also many proofs of this before. We had 
seen it gag John Quincy Adams, one of the noblest representatives 
of the people, while claiming for them the sacred right of petition ; 
we had seen a most scholarly and eloquent senator struck down in 
debate, and beaten senseless by a slave-bred ruffian, and the whole 
slave-driving aristocracy applaud the deed; we had seen it in the 



bowie-knives, blackguardism and brutality that disgraced the halls 
of national legislation ; we saw it plunge a nation in a fratricidal 
war, and conduct it with the most relentless cruelty and barbarism 
— but we could not yet believe sincerely that this was the guilt and 
power that so debauched the souls of these rebellious people. It 
was reserved for this crowning act of infamy to set the seal of 
eternal reprobation on it as a fearful crime. The spirit of slavery 
became incarnate in the person of the assassins, and murdered our 
noble President. Slave-chivalry is responsible for the " deep dam- 
nation of his taking off." Surely this is enough to open our eyes 
to see that to educate a boy in tyranny and licentiousness, from 
his cradle to his manhood, can fit him only for treason and rebel- 
lion ; that to rob and wrong a man, though he is black — to despoil 
and imbrute a woman, though she is yellow, will deprave any gov- 
ernment. Nothing but such a polluting power as slavery could ever 
have debauched so deeply the souls of any people, that they 
would rebel against such a government as this and murder such a 
man. Let us execrate the very spirit of such a crime forever. 

Third. It should teach us to execute lawful and righteous 
penalties upon him that doeth evil, and give security to the loyal 
and law abiding. Mercy is indeed a Divine attribute ; and to 
exercise mercy, where sin is condemned, justice satisfied, and in- 
nocence secured, must be a delight to every noble heart : but a 
mawkish charity for the criminal does not belong to such an attri- 
bute ; a sickly, sentimental pity for the condemned only shames 
this holy disposition. A few sharp pangs unwillingly endured, 
will not wash out the guilt of an atrocious crime. Fraternal re- 
gards for the transgressor, mild penance, will not give safety to 
the innocent, odium to sin, satisfaction to law, or honor to justice. 
Some talk as if there was no attribute noble but mercy, no feeling 
magnanimous but pity, and no act great and commendable but 
pardon : as if God had but one attribute, and that unqualified 
mercy ; as if nothing had higher claims to regard than the crimi- 
nal's entreaty. Do men forget that justice may be robbed, 
righteousness and obedience dishonored, and God displeased, by 
acts of unqualified mercy to transgressors ? You know that I 
have reference in these remarks to Lee, Davis and Co. as criminals. 
Have they not been guilty of high treason and rebellion? most 
relentless, inhuman and bloody rebelhon and treason ? 



6 

I have already spoken of the atrocity of the crime, and I take 
it for granted that you admit it. What is the legal and righteous 
penalty for such crimes ? Death ! for the satisfaction of justice, 
for the condemnation of the sin, and the safety of society. What 
reason can be given, then, why death should not be inflicted upon 
the civil and military chiefs of the rebellion, and confiscation and 
disfranchisement executed upon every official of the Confederacy ? 
Does not justice demand it? Most certainly. In after time, when 
it is asked, Why did that man perish on the gallows ? history will 
answer, his crime was so atrocious that justice would permit 
nothing less. Does not the proper condemnation of the sin de- 
mand it ? Yes ! nothing less will sufficiently brand the crime. 
Does not the safety of society, the peace and happiness of humani- 
ty, the blessings and permanence of civil government, demand it? 
Let such unprincipled, crafty, powerful men, free to work upon an 
ignorant and excitable populace, and can we disband our armies with 
safety ? Let men who have shown such fiendish cruelty, and 
practiced such atrocious barbarity, free on society ? Rather let 
the wolf into your fold and the tiger into your pasture. Will 
government be safe from the plotting of treason and rebellion, if 
she has not courage to punish such criminals ? 

I woula not excite one spark of vengeance in man ; this is ignoble. 
I knovr to look on the graves of slaughtered sons ; pens of torture, 
where brothers and fathers have died muttering idiots and raving 
madmen ; to look on all the desolation and bitter bereavement of 
this war, it is hard to repress the feeling that revenge is not only 
sweet, but right. It is hard to say to the heart, " rejoice not in 
the agony of thine enemy;" but I entreat you repress such 
thoughts. I only desire to excite in you a love of justice, a love 
for the honor of God's law, a love for the peace and happiness of 
humanity and the blessings of civil government, that will induce 
you, calmly, dispassionately to demand the execution of righteous 
penalties upon such transgressors. But you may ask, are only the 
leaders guilty ? Certainly not ; every individual engaged in the 
rebellion, and many here in the North who never carried a rebel 
musket, are morally guilty, and should be made to feel that they 
live, not because innocent, but that they live by the clemency of 
their government and the forbearance of this noble, generous 
people. But I have heard it remarked, " this government is strong 



enough to pardon like a God." We ask no more than this. God's 
pardon honors justice and condemns sin ; God's pardon secures 
indemnity and safety to his government ; — give us this and we ask 
no more. But the speaker did not mean this ; he was of tliose 
who appeal to national vanity, and say, what a proud honor it 
would be for our country to show now a magnanimity that would 
astonish the world. National vanity is but little less dangerous 
than national vengeance. The honor of God and justice comes 
before national honor. The nation can find room for the exercise 
of great and safe magnanimity in pardoning a mass of rebels and 
traitors, male and female, that still remains, both South and North; 
and this is magnanimity enough. 

If this crime is to have no expiation by death, if justice is to 
have no sacrifice from among the transgressors, then let the next 
Congress repeal the penal statutes, and blot the death penalty from 
the Book of God. Gen. 9 : 6, Ezra 7 : 26. If John Brown de- 
served death, why not Lee and Davis ? If Booth merited a felon's 
doom, Lee and Davis are guiltier than he. He only struck at the 
life of the government in one individual ; they, in the person of 
thousands. If the safety and peace of the dear South demanded 
the execution of John Brown, what does the safety and peace of 
the whole land demand for Lee, Davis, and others ? If Henry A. 
Wise had shown John Brown all the mercy which humanity can 
claim, then what can humanity claim for Henry A. Wise and such 
as he, more justly than a halter ? No government has the right 
to so far forget God's honor, the greatness of the sin, the claims of 
justice, and the safety of its people, as to run the peril of releasing 
such criminals. How would the generous man over whose grave 
you speak, thus be pleased with such teachings ? The law of my 
ofiice is this : " We dare not seek to please men, but God, who 
trieth our hearts." 

None according to their ability would honor the great dead 
more than I, or loved him more sincerely, with all his faults. His 
great tenderness — if fault it was, it was a most lovely fault — has 
left behind a sweeter fragrance on his memory than the sweetest 
flowers can ever breathe upon his grave. His great, kind soul 
could not believe the murderous malignity and implacable hate of 
his country's foes ; but you and I have a proof in addition that he 
never had, that is, his foul and bloody murder. We have seen that 



8 

they could slay Love and Mercy themselves, if the sword of 
Justice is sheathed; then let judgment injustice be done. 

Fourth. His life and death shall teach us the duty and profit- 
ableness of prayer for rulers. The divine injunction requires this 
as a duty of Christians, and Mr. Lincoln's life is an encouragement 
to do it. He took a most affectionate leave of his neighbors at home, 
asking their prayers, confessing his great need of divine guidance, 
and his great, honest, candid, simple heart, that looks out through 
all his eventful career, forbids us to cherish the thought for one 
moment that this was merely a political bid for Christian favor. He 
meant what he said ; and perhaps in the same length of time so 
many prayers were never offered for any ruler. This we believe 
enabled him to walk fearlessly and calmly amidst perils and 
perplexities, when he could see no path for his feet through the 
darkness that covered the snares and labyrinths of treason. He 
walked securely and safely for himself, and successfully for us, 
because a divine hand guided him; and he who cannot see this as 
he looks back upon his road, where the slightest deviation must 
have been ruinous to the nation, must be void of confidence in the 
divine truth and promise. 

Now the same duty for Andrew Johnson will surely be profitable 
for us, ana the unhappy conduct of his inauguration day only makes 
the duty more imperative for our safety as well as his. But I think 
many persons, including some ministers and religious editors, have 
been hasty and unjustly harsh in condemnation; they have denounced 
him as if he was a confessed inebriate, a confirmed sot. Is this 
near the truth ? I have no apology to make for drunkenness ; but we 
have a right to any evidence that will comfort us and encourage 
our confidence in our President, and that will do justice to his 
reputation. He passed through a campaign unparalleled for bitter 
vituperation, as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, yet his most 
vigilant enemies never discovered that he was a drunkard. This I 
think strong presumptive evidence of his sobriety. Gen. Burnside 
says, when he was associated with him most intimately for weeks 
in the Department of the Ohio, he never knew him to touch intoxi- 
cating drinks. Hon. E. Etheridge, who knew him well in Tennessee, 
testifies the same. Every one knows that he was in feeble health 
when he reached Washington, and that he was advised to take the 
brandy as a stimulus to enable him to bear the fatigue of the 



9 

ceremonies of the day; and one who -vfas present says, if he had 
been a drinker the amount taken then would not have affected him. 
When Mr. Lincoln spoke to him about the unhappy affair, his 
promise was that it should be the last of that kind, and we have 
never heard of its repetition. Instead of harsh, unchristian censures, 
tending to weaken public confidence in him, would it not be much 
better to gather confidence and comfort from these facts, and say, 
God help Andrew Johnson, then it shall be well with our land. 
Has not his loyalty and patriotism been tried and proved pure and 
strong ? He braved the traitors in the senate chamber, and told in 
their ears their guilt and merited doom ; left his home, property and 
all its endearments, rather than associate with traitors, and now 
God, by a mysterious providence, has placed kim in power as his 
avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil ;" and let us 
pray that he may be made faithful in duty, only tempering judgment 
with weeping mercy when the tears will not tarnish the glittering 
sword of justice that he bears as the minister of God. 

Fifth. We may learn the strength of a free government. When 
kings and despots are struck from their thrones, dismay, confusion 
and anarchy almost certainly follow, before the crown is placed and 
the sceptre acknowledged. But there wa snothing of this in our land ; 
after the quiver of agony that ran through the whole frame had 
passed, the blood circulated healthfully, strength returned, and 
there was only the painful regret of a member lost, a wound unhealed. 
Why is this ? Because the strength and life of our land is not in its 
hills and mountains, but in the vast solid plain on which they stand. 
The national hills may be shaken, and the mountains melted down, 
but the government is not overthrown, because it stands on the vast 
solid plain of the intelligent masses ; it is founded on the loving, 
loyal hearts of its free subjects, and to slay it, the assassin's bullet 
must pierce every loyal brain and heart in the land. 

Sixth. We should learn greater confidence in God. All through 
the. gloomy night of sorrow he has seemed to hold our chief by the 
hand, and in the wildest and most perilous hours of the storm has 
said to us almost audibly, "Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." 
Now he has taken the loved chief away, and says, " Put not your 
trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day 
his thoughts decay. But in God's name display your banners." 



10 

Now, to the young men of my congregation, nay, I might say, 
to young and old, all who hear me, I wish to present a few traits 
of Abraham Lincoln's character that should be studied, wrought 
in your hearts and copied in your life. I need scarcely speak of 
his great tenderness, gentleness and kindness of soul, that balanced 
his strong sense of justice, and seemed to almost overbalance this 
attribute. The humblest sufferer received his sympathy; he 
mingled his tears with the poorest, in their bereavement. This is 
the mark of a truly great mind and heart ; it is this that now 
sheds the sweetest odors around his memory ; it is this that won 
for him such love in every true heart of this great land. Such was 
the integrity of his character, that those who had lived near him 
longest, and knew him best, sought to title him with a descriptive 
cognomen, and they called him "Honest Old Abraham." I know 
it has been uttered many a time with a sneer, as a nickname, but 
it was a title of endearment, a name of affection and confidence, 
that, alas ! so few deserve ; a title that would honor any crowned 
head on earth. It was given to him by men who wept for joy 
when he was first nominated for President, because they loved him 
for his simplicity, candor, and lofty, pure integrity of character, 
and they rejoiced to see their country's highest honors placed upon 
him, and her glory and welfare placed in his hands, for they felt 
they would be safe by virtue of his purity of soul. Young man ! 
if you would learn the path of usefulness, honor and greatness, 
study and copy his life who wore this homely but honorable title to 
his grave — his life that was so pre-eminent for spotless integrity of 
heart and purpose. Nothing will lift you surer, safer, higher on 
earth, than this purity of honor. 

Again, study his decision of character. He has proved by 
severe trial, that in favor of anything right, whether popular or 
not, he could say Yes ; and against anything wrong, though sanc- 
tioned by custom grown hoary with age, and consecrated by sacer- 
dotal rites, he could firmly say No ! Oh, that we had more men 
with decision enough to use these little monosyllables appropriately 
and timely. Who, when asked by a professed friend to help the 
purposes of fraud and meanness, could emphatically say No ! Who, 
when asked to drink at the bar, could say No ! Not timidly or 
offensively, but firmly. ^. Who, when enticed by the saloon and 
halls of guilty pleasure, could still say No ! But when asked to 



11 

espouse the cause of the poor, of right, purity and li])erty, could 
as firmly and cheerfully say Yes ! Lincoln was decided, not obsti- 
nate ; firm, but not dogmatic ; unyielding in his convictions of 
right and duty, yet pleasant in refusal, and generous in his regard 
for the opinion of others who differed with him. This trait of his 
character, that gave him stability of purpose and action, is worthy 
of study and imitation. 

Again, he was an example in temperance,' He was temperate 
from principle, and ever acted consistently with the principle, 
proving his sincere convictions by his practice. I will relate an 
anecdote told to me by a senator who was present at the time, 
that illustrates both his decision of character and his conscientious 
temperance. He was present at the great Sanitary Fair at Phila- 
delphia ; a sumptuous collation was spread, and all the celebrated 
and honored persons present were around the table. The President 
was offered a bottle of champagne, and asked to perform the 
ceremony of opening the Fair by drinking a toast ; he consented 
to undertake any appropriate ceremonies to open the Fair, but 
firmly refused the wine. The same day a venerable Episcopalian 
clergyman, the oldest minister in the city, much respected and 
honored, but who had always been taught to regard a drink of wine 
at any time as his right and privilege, asked his Excellency to do 
him the honor to drink a glass of wine with him. Yet he politely 
but firmly refused. His veneration for the man, his desire to give 
pleasure, would not induce him to swerve from a principle and 
practice which he believed valuable to himself, his country, and 
the world. Many would doubtless have plead that the circumstan- 
ces would justify compliance, but he seemed to judge that no 
circumstances would justify a man, especially a ruler, in violating 
a conscientious conviction and a valuable principle, and setting an 
example that thousands might afterward plead to their ruin ; so 
he refused decisively. Young man! act with such decision and 
principle, and it may save you from sore and vain regret, preserve 
for you a priceless self-respect, and give you stability and great- 
ness of character. 

Men were astonished at his calmness and hopefulness in the dark- 
est hour of his country's night. When despondency bent almost 
every head, and gloom shadowed almost every brow, eminent di- 
vines — eminent for learning and piety — thought to carry him 



12 

comfort and strength, but left his presence, their weak confidence 
rebuked by his peacefulness of mind and cheerful hope of heart. 
Would you like to know the secret of this^? It was his unshaken 
faith in God and right. When the bloody struggle was fiercest 
and most hopeless, the conviction, " This is right, and God reigns," 
anchored his soul safe and immovable as upon a mountain rock, and 
lifted it into the light of hope and sweet serenity, amid the most 
appalling fury of the storm ; he might have adopted the favorite 
emblem of William, Prince of Orange, "tranquil amid raging 
billows." Young man! espouse the cause of right, then fix this 
truth deeply in your soul : righteousness will triumph through the 
power and justice of God. Link this by the strongest convictions 
to your very inmost heart, then you can either labor or wait fear- 
lessly, calmly, hopefully, amid the darkest day and the most 
appalling dangers, for the sun shall not so surely rise as the light 
of your triumph. 

But I need make no efi'ort to pronounce a worthy eulogy upon 
this great man. Abler pens than mine must write it, and more 
eloquent tongues than mine must tell the worth, patriotism and 
greatness of our late President. It has ever been the fate of good- 
ness and greatness in this world to be hated, envied and slandered ; 
but perhaps no one was ever more unjustly and bitterly reviled and 
traduced than he. When he was laboring and agonizing night and 
day to save his country's life, honor and liberty, many who claimed 
to be his countrymen, and to be loyal to its life and flag, linked his 
name with the most abusive epithets, and poured the foulest calum- 
nies upon his character. Buffoon, fool, traitor, tyrant, murderer, 
were the choice titles applied to him by these base, unworthy 
Americans ; and their infamous pens were employed to write fiend- 
ish bids for an assassin to take his life. What insulting hypocrisy 
for such men to black-lead their editorial lines and hang crape 
about their doors for him ! And many in England, who fawn 
about a crowned head and flatter a polluted nobility, sought to 
ridicule and defame his simple greatness and purity. They sneered 
at his manners, as if greatness could be tested by graceful bows ; 
they talked of his ugliness, as if beauty was essential to virtue ; 
they made merriment over his figure and postures, as if genius 
could be embodied only in symmetry ; they were witty over his 
dress, as if worth always walked in the elegant costume of Brum- 



13 

mell; they affected a pious indignation over his jokes, as if jesting 
was the filthiest sin. They who scarcely knew what love of country 
meant, presumed to criticise a patriot ; they sneered at a freeman, 
who were the menials of a petty lord ; they ridiculed a hero, who 
had never felt a pulsation of true heroism. No ambitious aspira- 
tions impelled him to struggle for place and power : he set an 
humble estimate on his own abilities ; he did not climb, he was 
lifted up, because such power, worth and excellence as he possessed 
could not be hidden. A great light may be kindled in a valley, 
but the mountain tops will catch its brightness. He did not seek 
the place of leader ; others fell behind him, tacitly confessing his 
fitness to lead. He did not court fame, but fame wooed him. He 
did not reach for the sceptre, but found it placed in his hand, and 
felt a ruling spirit grow strong within him while he held it. He 
never struggled for sovereignty, but accepted it, because he was a 
nation's choice ; and when in the sovereign's place, he ruled not 
with the haughty supremacy of kings, but as a minister, humbly 
acknowledging himself only "a higher power" to serve the High- 
est. He was not a dictator, because he was too humble to be abso- 
lute. H,e was not a tyrant, although few ever possessed greater 
power, or might have been more easily a despot ; but he was too 
just to tyrannize. He was not an oppressor, because he was too 
generous and noble to add a needless ounce to a burden. Though 
provoked by the most scurrilous abuse and ribaldry from enemies 
who were within his power, yet no feeling of resentment or revenge, 
either in word or act, escaped him, because he was too kind for 
bitterness, and too great to be abusive. Even when urged by loyal 
thousands, and censured for refusal to retaliate on a barbarous and 
fiendish foe, his great tenderness and mercy held him back, and he 
stood like an averting angel between them and an injured nation's 
vengeance. He offended political friends, because he was too 
honest for state-craft, or the tortuous course of a partisan policy. 
Kings have been put into a measure of greatness so large, that 
they left it more than half empty; but Abraham Lincoln filled 
every standard of greatness by which he was tried, and placed in 
the largest the world contained, the magistracy of a great nation, 
in the midst of a bitter, bloody, civil strife, with armed millions in 
the field of battle, he yet filled the measure in rounding beauty, 
and saved his country. 



14 

In every position he has occupied, from his humble work of a 
pioneer farmer to the last and the highest, he has served with 
faithfulness, usefulness and honor. By a native greatness of soul, 
a natural grandeur of character, he lifted himself from the first 
position to the last, from the untutored farmer and surveyor to the 
Presidency of the mightiest Kepublic on earth, and there ruled 
with a wisdom, dignity, calmness and success, that astonished the 
world. He was firm, without obstinacy or bigotry; slow to reach 
conclusions, but when once attained they were held with unyieding 
tenacity, because in the deep conviction of his soul they were be- 
lieved to be right. He was a fervent lover of liberty and justice, 
and a hater of slavery and rebellion ; yet neither a fanatic or an 
enthusiast. Believing that he was entrusted with power for the 
good of humanity, and believing in the virtue and beneficence of a 
republican government, he executed the stern mandates of justice 
only at the behest of freedom, human happiness and his country's 
safety. He seemed to decide, by moral intuition, questions of 
judgemnt, and to adopt his measures from pure considerations of 
right, not from policy or expediency. By a moral force of heart, 
a grandeur of character, more powerful than brilliant talents, great 
attainments or genius, he carried his country through the most 
imminent peril, through a storm wilder and stronger than has 
foundered many a noble ship, and he ruled in its wildest fury with 
a calmness, fearlessness, justice, magnanimity and mercy, that even 
his blinded enemies began to admire. He was wise without the 
learning of the schools, and educated without a master ; he was 
not eloquent, yet orators listened with delight to his words; he was 
not schooled, yet the most princely scholars of the land were in- 
structed by him; he was not a religionist, yet the most learned 
divines left his presence astonished at his humble but strong faith. 
If he was ungraceful in manners, without the polish of art and 
posture-masters, and ignorant of the etiquette and conventionalities 
of courts, yet he could receive embassadors with an ease and 
genial dignity that was charming. He had a devotion to freedom 
that William of Orange did not excel, and an intelligent, pure 
patriotism that made him a peer with the great V/ashington. 

An English writer says, " he is one of the finest characters, best 
citizens and purest patriots, to whom the land of Washington has 
given birth." He was truly great in the best and widest sense of 



15 

that much abused word. Whether a laborer in the western woods 
or a boatman on the river, he was morally and intellectually 
great. As a lawyer, a debater and legislator, he was great; 
Crittenden's testimony is, "I never heard a more logical debater or 
finer gentleman than he." The testimony of an other who knew 
him well is, "God never made a truer man; mild, candid, gentle, 
noble, Avithout a base design or anything that degrades." This is 
moral grandeur. As a ruler, his greatness was tried by the most 
Herculean task, yet he performed it with a giant's strength, a 
saint's faithfulness, and a woman's tenderness. As the historian 
says of the Prince of Orange," he bore the load of a people's sorrows 
on his shoulders with cheerfulness," served them with unselfish 
devotion in the darkest calamities, "was the guiding-star of a brave 
nation while he lived, and when he was slain, little children cried 
in the streets," for a manlier, gentler spirit never left human body 
through the bloody breach of violence. But now he is gathered to 
his grave, 

"AVith patriarchs of the infant world, with kings, 
The powerful of the earth, the wise, the good, 
Learned sages and hoary seers of ages past:" 

a fit companion for the wisest, the greatest and the best, for/ he 
was a sovereign that needed no golden crown to show his royalty. 
God had set jewels in his heart that shined upon his brow/ The 
great dome of the Capitol was hung with crape that morning ; 
methinks if it could have stretched upward its gigantic form and 
hung the symbol of mourning on the sky, the Avhole earth seeing it 
might say, Weep, all people of every land, for a nation is not only 
orphaned, but the world is bereaved. They shrouded him for burial 
while literally millions wept the bitterest tears of rage and grief; 
"never was a more extensive, unaffected, legitimate sorrow felt at the 
death of any human being." From State to State his body 

" Was grandly borne, with such a train 
As greatest kings might die to gain.'' 

He was laid in no royal sepulchre, beneath no massive, gloomy 
dome, but in 

"The churchyard where his children rest. 
The quiet spot that suits him best, 
There shall his grave be made, 
And there his bones be laid, 



16 

"And there his countrymen shall come, 

With memory proud, with pity dumb ; 

And strangers, far and near. 

For many and many a year," 

shall come to kindle anew and purify their love of country at the 
patriot urn of our martyred saviour. He died in a fullness and glory 
of fame that historic ages will only increase in purity aud grandeur. 
His own great deeds, his pure, noble life, is a more imperishable and 
worthy monument than the hand of man can ever build above his 
grave ; and his name and fame would be riches to any nation on 
earth. 

Millions of broken fetters lie about his tomb, and millions of slaves 
made free will cherish his memory with undying aifection, and will 
leave his name to their children as a legacy, and bid them wear it 
in their hearts as a talisman against oppression. And millions 
whose freedom has been preserved in this land will link his name 
in history and song with all the glory and happiness of their 
country, and hand it down to their children as the watchword of 
Liberty " for many a year and many an age. " 

Oh if his death will only teach this nation to love right and hate 
wrong, to punish him that doeth evil and protect him that doeth well, 
" the effect of righteousness shall be peace, quietness and assurance 
forever, and we shall dwell in a peaceful habitation and sure 
dwelling-places." 



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